Designed game situations enhance fundamental movement skills in children with Down syndrome.
Ten weeks of teacher-made games beat regular adapted PE at teaching ball skills to kids with Down syndrome.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers split kids with Down syndrome into two groups. One group played teacher-made games like obstacle courses and ball challenges. The other group stayed in regular adapted PE class.
The game group met twice a week for ten weeks. Each session lasted 45 minutes. Teachers scored movement skills before and after with a standard test.
What they found
The game group got much better at throwing, catching, and kicking. The regular PE group improved only a little.
Both groups ran and jumped better, but the game group still won. The study shows fun games beat drill-style PE for object control.
How this fits with other research
Diaz (2020) shows kids with Down syndrome are the least active of any disability group. G et al. give one clear way to fix that: build game periods into the school day.
Pickard et al. (2022) ran community football for autistic kids and saw the same jump in ball skills. Different diagnosis, same takeaway—play-based sport works.
Adams et al. (2021) warn that kids with low adaptive behavior gain less from movement programs. Screen first, then add extra support so every child can win from the game plan.
Why it matters
You can swap half of your movement drills for short, game-like rounds. Think "catch the dragon tail" instead of "ten chest passes." Kids work harder, smile more, and master skills faster. No extra gear is needed—just clear rules, quick turns, and plenty of cheers.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the effects of a designed program based on games situations with those of a conventional one, the Adapted Physical Education (APE) program, on the fundamental movement skills (FMS) in children with Down Syndrome (DS), aged 6 to 10. METHODS: Twenty-eight children (13 girls and 15 boys; age 8.84 ± 1.06) with DS participated in this study. The participants were divided into two groups as the experimental group (EG) with 13 children (3 girls and 10 boys) and the control group (CG) composed with 15 children (10 girls and 5 boys). The EG participated in a conceived training program based on games situations along 10 weeks, while the CG took part in an APE conventional program based on football, long Jump and sprint adapted exercises. The FMS (locomotor and object control skills) were evaluated using the Gross Motor Development-2 Test at pretraining and posttraining for both groups. RESULTS: The results revealed that both programs improve significantly locomotor skills with significantly better improvement in the EG. However, a significant object control skills improvement was observed only among the EG. CONCLUSIONS: In light of our findings, a training program based on adapted games situations during 10 weeks may be recommended for FMS improvement, specifically object control skills.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2020 · doi:10.1111/jir.12717